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Galaxy S9 vs. Pixel 2: Which Android Flagship Will Win? – Tom’s Guide

Samsung is approaching to take a wraps off a Galaxy S9 and S9+ handsets during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Feb. 25, nonetheless don’t pattern many surprises when a phone finally arrives. Almost each detail about Samsung’s subsequent era of reward Android flagship inclination has leaked in new weeks, including photos of what a phones demeanour like. (Spoiler alert: Little has altered from a S8.)

Samsung Galaxy S9. Credit: OnLeaksSince Samsung’s final turn of phone releases, Google has lifted a bar for Android inclination by entrance out with a new chronicle of a Pixel. The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL come packaged with all kinds of features, from a torpedo camera with intent approval to a squeezable physique that triggers Google Assistant.

If a S9 is going to corner past a latest Pixels, it’s going to have to compare a camera bravery of Google’s phone. So it’s no warn that Samsung will reportedly put a some-more modernized shooter in a newest phone. In fact, a association promises to “reimagine” a camera.

Here’s how we see a Galaxy S9 stacking adult opposite a Pixel 2 formed on a leaked specs for Samsung’s new phone. We’ll have an even clearer pattern of how a dual phones magnitude adult after Samsung strictly unveils a S9 on Feb. 25.

Galaxy S9 vs. Pixel 2: Leaked vs. Real Specs

Cameras

Samsung is reportedly betting large on a S9’s cameras to contest with Apple’s latest iPhones as good as with a Pixel 2. The company’s invitation to a Mobile World Congress eventuality facilities the tagline “Camera Reimagined,” stressing usually how most significance Samsung is fixation on a camera with this refurbish to a Galaxy lineup.

The Galaxy S9+ is approaching to competition an considerable dual-lens rear-facing camera, that conjunction of Google’s Pixel handsets have. Samsung combined dual lenses to a supersized Galaxy Note 8, expelled final fall, and according to remarkable leaker Evan Blass, that underline is approaching to make a approach to a somewhat smaller S9+. We pattern a delegate lens to capacitate a same tricks it does in a Note 8, including a Live Focus mode for bringing objects into concentration while blurring a background. The S9+’s telephoto lens is also approaching to support visual zoom.

But a large shakeup is approaching in a primary 12-MP lens, that didn’t change most in a S8 from a S7. Samsung reportedly combined an tractable orifice to a S9’s categorical shooter, that will be means to automatically open from f/2.4 to f/1.5, a widest of any smartphone ever. A new slow-motion video mode is also coming, according to Blass — a camera will reportedly clarity quick transformation and delayed it down to 480 frames per second.

Pixel 2 XLAs remarkable above, a Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL competition a singular 12-MP lens, nonetheless Google relies on program to lift off a same mural outcome you’ll find on dual-lens phones and that we pattern to see in a S9+. The downside to Google’s approach: You can usually see a confused outcome after we take a print instead of in preview mode like on a Note 8 (and shortly a S9+). Look for Samsung to stress this edge.

Design and Displays

If we like a demeanour of a Galaxy S8 and S8+, you’re in luck: Both versions of a S9 will reportedly demeanour roughly matching to final year’s models. The Infinity Display we desired in a S8 is approaching to make a approach to a S9.

Pixel 2 XL (left) and Pixel 2 (right)The dual new handsets will approaching underline skinny bezels during a tip to encase a front-facing camera, nonetheless we pattern them to be unobtrusive. That’s in approach contrariety to a smaller Pixel 2, that surrounds a 5-inch OLED arrangement with bezels thick adequate to residence a fingerprint scanner (even nonetheless Google places that sensor on a behind of a phone). The Pixel 2 XL sports slimmer bezels than a small sibling, nonetheless doesn’t compare a approaching extent of a S9 display, that will approaching extend to a edges and hang around a sides of a phone, too. Just like a S8.

The S8 was dinged for a plcae of a fingerprint scanner, that is located subsequent to a camera lens. That means we competence blemish your camera when aiming to clear your phone. In a long-awaited move, Samsung will apparently take a page from a Pixel 2 and other Android flagships by putting a S9’s fingerprint scanner next a camera lens.

The Pixel 2 lacks a headphone jack. Samsung will take a opposite tack, reportedly unresolved onto a jack for a S9. That underline alone would set a S9 detached from other reward flagships, as phones from Google, Apple and HTC have all separated a headphone jack.

Credit: VentureBeatThen there’s a display. Both S9 models are approaching to have Super AMOLED panels with ultrasharp 2960 x 1440-pixel resolution. The Pixel 2 XL has a likewise high-res display, while a smaller Pixel 2’s OLED row is 1920 x 1080. The Pixel 2 XL was a theme of widespread complaints about its screen, trimming from a bizarre blue stain when observation during a certain angle to OLED burn-in. Google expelled a program refurbish to repair those issues. Samsung’s high-res, winding AMOLED displays have not gifted identical issues, nonetheless in a testing, we’ve found a iPhone X’s row offers some-more natural-looking colors.

Performance

Samsung will approaching be initial handset builder to use Qualcomm’s cutting-edge Snapdragon 845 mobile processor, that could make a S9 a fastest Android phone on a marketplace when it launches in March. The processor is also approaching to make a S9 some-more efficient, some-more secure and extend a battery life, that we’ll put to a exam when we get a hands on a device.

The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL both have a last-gen Snapdragon 835 processor, like a S8 and S8+. The Pixel 2 lagged behind a Galaxy S8 in a Geekbench 4 opening test, nonetheless a Pixel 2 incited in a faster video-editing time than a Galaxy S8 and Note 8.

We’ll be behaving several real-world tests and fake benchmarks on a Galaxy S9 to see how it stacks up.

Special Features

Samsung and Google are operative to compute their smartphones with voice-activated assistants.

The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL have Google Assistant, activated by squeezing a devices’ sides. Google Assistant taps into how we use Google’s several services to answer your questions and yield we useful information.

Samsung’s Bixby isn’t during that turn nonetheless — distant from it, actually. But Samsung is reportedly operative to urge a partner and make it some-more applicable in a S9 interface, instead of being a apart use that isn’t well-integrated with a rest of a phone. On a Galaxy S8, Bixby is triggered with a possess side button, nonetheless gossip has it that Samsung is integrating a assistant some-more seamlessly into a phone’s interface. It could be called AI UX.

Google Lens on a Pixel 2 XLThe Pixels also have smarter cameras with a underline called Google Lens that can commend objects in photos and give we some-more information about them. It’s misleading if Samsung has anything identical in store for a S9, nonetheless Google has hinted that a underline could find a approach to other Android phones.

Bottom Line

We don’t have each fact about a S9, nonetheless we do know that a faster processor and overhauled camera complement will go a prolonged approach toward creation it a improved opposition for a Pixel 2. Based on a rumors, a S9 will approaching kick Google’s phone on pattern and performance. However, it stays to be seen either it can take a camera climax from a Pixel 2, or either Bixby can adult a game.

We’ll refurbish this story with some-more information when Samsung shows off a Galaxy S9 and S9+ on Feb. 25.

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